Learn how to paint poppies in watercolour using just four colours

Equipment

Bockingford NOT 200lb (425gsm) Watercolour paper

One large Round

One small Round

One nylon flat brush, around ¾in. (2cm) wide

Watercolour paints

Pencil 3B to 5B

Mixing palette with large wells

Board

Masking tape

Kitchen towel

Colours

Cobalt blue

Vermilion

Raw sienna

Indian yellow

Use the watercolour lifting out technique to paint poppies with David Webb

Discover the lifting out technique as you paint poppies in watercolour with David Webb.

Lifting out

The size of brush needed for this technique depends on the size of the area you want to lift out, but it's best to use the largest brush that you can.

A nylon flat brush works well for this technique. Although you can use other shaped brushes, such as Rounds, the flat has the advantage of being able to use the whole brush to lift large areas or being used edge-on to create a thin line.

The technique

1. Paint an area of colour, in this case vermilion.

2. Give it a moment to settle and then, with a damp brush, press down and drag out the area that you wish to lift.

3. The marks here show the variety of marks that can be achieved with a flat.

Demontration: Poppies

This demonstration is taken from the September 2018 issue of Leisure Painter and is part of the tenth in a series of 13 articles on watercolour basics and beyond by David.

Studio members have access to all these articles and more with a digital archive of Leisure Painter and The Artist magazines going back over more than six years. Discover Studio here.

Poppies, watercolour on Bockingford NOT 200lb (425gsm) watercolour paper, (19x28cm)

Before you begin, tape your watercolour paper around all four edges to a board and prop your board up at an angle of 20 degrees to the horizontal.

Carefully draw the outline of the flower.

In your mixing wells, make separate, fluid dilutions of all the four colours listed above.

Wet the surface of the paper with your largest brush. Dip your brush into the Indian yellow and begin brushing in the background colour from the top left.
Then quickly rinse the brush in water, dry it off on kitchen towel then pick up cobalt blue and work this into the still-wet Indian yellow. You can see how this creates wonderfully soft colour changes.
In the lower right, add raw sienna.

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Top Tip

Don’t worry if the colours drift into the area of the flower, as this is where we use the lifting-out technique.

Before the background colour dries, use a slightly damp flat brush to lift out any colour that may have spread into the main flower area.
Lift out some colour from the upper areas of the buds, as these parts of the flowers are catching the light.
Allow the green background wash to dry.

Top Tip

For all the steps in this demonstration use the flat brush only for lifting out.

With the Round brush, pick up vermilion and paint the narrow band of red colour that is visible in the left-hand flower bud.
For the larger open flower, begin at the top with vermilion. Wash out and dry your brush then add Indian yellow, working wet-in-wet into the vermilion to create warmer areas of colour.

Once the wash on the flower is complete, use the flat brush to lift out the lighter areas of the petals. This helps to create the delicate, papery appearance of the flower.

Allow to dry.

Now paint the green parts of the poppy, such as the buds, stems and leaves. Using Indian yellow, cobalt blue and raw sienna, mix the colours on the paper to obtain a variety of greens.

Top Tip

It might be best to try out a few mixes on scrap paper first, before you apply the colours to the painting.

Make a strong mix of cobalt blue with a little vermilion to create the dark colour for the centre of the flower.

Paint this area then, with the flat brush, lift out a few lights.

Paint the darker parts of the buds, stems and leaves, using stronger mixes of Indian yellow, cobalt blue and raw sienna.

Top Tip

It’s important to leave a few areas of the previous wash untouched to represent the lighter, sunnier parts of the plant.

This illustration shows the completed green areas. Note how dark the shadow is on the stem just under the flower. This helps to project the poppy forward from the rest of the plant.

Paint a second wash of red on the open flower.

Top Tip

You can see that these brushstrokes help to describe the papery feel of the poppy so it’s important to leave enough of the previous wash untouched to achieve this effect.